8' x 11'5" Persian Rug | Ivory Field Medallion with Navy Border | Semi-Antique, Excellent Condition

This is the kind of Persian rug people picture when they say they want a Persian rug: a clean beige ivory field, one commanding navy and rust medallion, and a deep indigo border that frames the whole thing like a picture. It measures 8' x 11'5", a true room size that fills a standard 12 foot wide living room or floats a dining table without crowding the walls, and it sits comfortably in the family of 8 x 11 Persian rugs that we stock most heavily. The pile is wool on a cotton foundation, hand-knotted throughout, and the back shown in the photographs is crisp and legible, with the knot rows tight and the color as clear from behind as it is from the front. The wool has the soft sheen of a piece that has been walked on gently and cared for, with even pile height across the field and no repairs. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity that records the origin, materials and measurements of the exact piece you receive.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is the classic Persian city formula, executed with real discipline. At the center sits a lobed navy medallion built around an 8 petal rust rosette, each petal filled with its own small flowerhead so the core reads as a bouquet rather than a flat shape. A slim navy pendant hangs from each end of the medallion, and two quatrefoil ornaments float above and below on the open field. The 4 corners carry large spandrels in rust red with big sage green curled leaves and cloud band scrolls, and the space between medallion and corners is not left empty: it is filled with a light, airy scatter of blossoms, split palmettes, buds and thin vine work, all drawn small enough that the field still reads as open ground. The main border runs a steady rotation of star rosettes and gold cypress-like buds on indigo, flanked by a rust guard stripe and a fine turtle style minor border in pale blue and ivory. The ivory outer selvage line keeps the whole frame from going heavy.

A Beige Field Read Against Indigo and Rust

The field is the selling point. It is a warm beige, closer to buttermilk and antique ivory than to a cold cream, and in the close detail photograph you can see the wool catch the light and shift half a shade as the pile lies one way or the other. Against that ground the palette is deliberately limited and therefore strong: a deep indigo navy in the medallion core and the main border, a brick rust red in the medallion petals and the corner spandrels, and a soft sage to celadon green in the large corner leaves and scattered foliage. Small quantities of old gold, pale sky blue, walnut brown and ivory do the detail work inside the flowerheads. Nothing here is loud. The rust is muted rather than fire engine, the green is dusty, and the navy has the slightly inky depth that good indigo takes on with age. Practically, a beige ground rug like this lightens a room the way a red ground rug never will, and it sits easily with oak, walnut, leather, linen and most existing upholstery.

Persian Origin and Weaving Quality

This is a semi-antique piece woven in Persia in the town workshop tradition, where a paper cartoon is drawn first and the weavers follow it knot by knot, which is why the medallion is symmetrical end to end and the border corners resolve properly instead of being cut off mid motif. The curved outline of the medallion, the fineness of the vine work and the clean registration of the small floral fillers all point to a workshop weave rather than village production. The back photograph, shown with a ruler for scale, tells the honest story: a firm, regular knot, a cotton warp and weft, and enough knots per square inch to hold detail this small without blurring it. The wool is good quality with lanolin still in it, which is what gives the pile its light sheen and its resistance to soiling. If you want to understand how age is judged on a piece like this, our guide on how to date an oriental rug walks through the dyes, the weave and the wear patterns that dealers actually look at.